You Might Try to Perfect the Technique With Insect Brains First

Is it possible to preserve who you are, after you die? There are large numbers of serious people who spend their time devising ways to do just that. There are those who plan to freeze their brains, those who want to upload their brains into a "more permanent" repository of consciousness, and there are those who wish to dismantle their own brains -- piece by piece -- in order to build a replica of all brain cells and connections to a level of precision unimaginable today.

They would call that replica, "Themselves, version II."

Chronicle of Higher Ed

"There is only one truly interesting problem in science and technology," [Sebastian] Seung writes, "and that is immortality."

His tone, in the book and in conversation, is that of an open-minded skeptic. Of brain preservation, he says simply, "it's possible" but not imminent. As for immortality, he's quite sure that he'll die, just as we all will. The discussion about these issues has reached an impasse, he explains. Until someone dead is brought back to life, "it's just your word against mine, a philosophical debate." But connectomics can provide a way forward, he says.

Seung proposes a two-part test. First, is it true that we are our connectomes? Second, does cryonics or chemical brain preservation keep the connectome intact? If either statement is false, then freezing or uploading can't work. If both statements are true, immortality isn't in the offing, he cautions, but it's at least plausible. "Some colleagues may think this is all kind of crazy," he says, "but these questions can be addressed in an intellectually rigorous way." _Chronicle of Higher Ed_via_NBF

Seung is responding to the ideas of Ken Hayworth, a man who believes that he has found a way to live forever. Hayworth plans to peel his brain -- at the moment of death -- to a very thin level with a microtome. The peeled brain will be preserved, then analysed to an exquisite level of detail, and then "reproduced" precisely.

More on Hayworth's bold ideas:

He wants his 100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion synapses to be encased in a block of transparent, amber-colored resin—before he dies of natural causes.

To understand why Hayworth wants to plastinate his own brain you have to understand his field—connectomics, a new branch of neuroscience. A connectome is a complete map of a brain's neural circuitry. Some scientists believe that human connectomes will one day explain consciousness, memory, emotion, even diseases like autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's—the cures for which might be akin to repairing a wiring error. In 2010 the National Institutes of Health established the Human Connectome Project, a $40-million, multi-institution effort to study the field's medical potential.

Among some connectomics scholars, there is a grand theory: We are our connectomes. Our unique selves—the way we think, act, feel—is etched into the wiring of our brains. Unlike genomes, which never change, connectomes are forever being molded and remolded by life experience. Sebastian Seung, a professor of computational neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a prominent proponent of the grand theory, describes the connectome as the place where "nature meets nurture."

Hayworth takes this theory a few steps further. He looks at the growth of connectomics—especially advances in brain preservation, tissue imaging, and computer simulations of neural networks—and sees something else: a cure for death. In a new paper in the International Journal of Machine Consciousness, he argues that mind uploading is an "enormous engineering challenge" but one that can be accomplished without "radically new science and technologies."

...A piece of human brain tissue the size of a thimble contains around 50 million neurons and close to a trillion synapses. Scientists compare the task of tracing each connection to untangling a heaping plate of microscopically thin spaghetti....a human connectome would generate one trillion gigabytes of raw data. By comparison, the entire Human Genome Project requires only a few gigabytes. A human connectome would be the most complicated map the world has ever seen.

... _Chronicle

Here is how Hayworth plans to achieve his astounding miracle: Using an "ultramicrotome," he intends to have his brain fatally preserved in place while still alive, then "peeled" into ultra-thin slices, imaged in an electron microscope, and electronically "rebuilt" to a level of detail unimaginable with today's technology.

More:

After Hayworth is placed under anesthesia, a cocktail of toxic chemicals will be perfused through his still-functioning vascular system, fixing every protein and lipid in his brain into place, preventing decay, and killing him instantly. Then he will be injected with heavy-metal staining solutions to make his cell membranes visible under a microscope. All of the water will then be drained from his brain and spinal cord, replaced by pure plastic resin. Every neuron and synapse in his central nervous system will be protected down to the nanometer level, Hayworth says, "the most perfectly preserved fossil imaginable."

His plastic-embedded brain will eventually be cut into strips, perhaps using a machine like the one he invented, and then imaged in an electron microscope. His physical brain will be destroyed, but in its place will be a precise map of his connectome. In 100 years or so, he says, scientists will be able to determine the function of each neuron and synapse and build a computer simulation of his mind. And because the plastination process will have preserved his spinal nerves, he's hopeful that his computer-generated mind can be connected to a robot body.

...Current methods of preserving brain tissue, an intensely fragile substance, top out at around one cubic millimeter—far, far short of an entire human brain. _Chronicle

So . . . . imagine that Hayworth succeeds in re-creating his brain's connectome within the programming of an infinitely fast super-computer. What will happen next?

When asked that question, most Al Fin cognitivists state that Hayworth is committing an error of logical levels. The mind is not, in fact, the connectome. Rather, the mind is the impossibly complex and dynamic -- never ending in life -- pattern of reacting, interacting, self-referential, and outwardly probing pulses and signals within the brain, which live within a physical and chemical environment of the body and the outer world, and which are constantly both enabled and limited by a unique pattern of genetic and epigenetic architecture and action.

Although still a young man, Hayworth is concerned about the possibility of his own death. He means to do something about it. His time and effort will not be wasted, entirely. He himself is unlikely to enjoy any sort of immortality which his current self would "enjoy." But his work will be used by others within a wider view of the mind and self. Reproducing a brain's connectome is likely to be one important piece of simulating that unique brain. But probably not the most important piece. And possibly not even a necessary piece.

I would like to see the techniques used on simpler brains, of course, before anyone considers using them on human brains. Worms and insects suggest themselves as excellent starting points.

h/t Brian Wang

Severed Head Immortality

Can a severed head achieve an immortality that is denied the rest of the body? It depends. On the one hand, we have Alcor, the cryonics group that will freeze your severed head until a hypothetical time when it can be safely unfrozen, all frost-damage repaired.

And then there is another type of "immortality" -- when one lives on, inside the memories of surviving loved ones. Photos, videos, and other mementos can help. A realistic and expressive head replica might provide a particularly striking sense of persistence to those who are left behind. This is the type of urge-to-immortality which commemorative urn company Cremation Solutions is playing to.

An American company called Cremation Solutions is offering commemorative urns shaped like the severed heads of deceased loved ones.

The Vemont-based company, which specialises in memorial events and cremation products, has made the containers using 3D imaging techniques that combine a number of different photographs. The full-sized urn is around 28cm high, and can hold the ashes of an adult. There is also a smaller 15cm "keepsake" option that fits just a portion of the ashes.

The Vermont-based company informs customers on its website that the urn does not come with hair although it can be digitally added or wigs can be used. It writes: "Personal urns can be designed to look like anyone. We just need good pictures. We prefer one picture from the front and one from the side. Complexions can be adjusted in the final stages and customers get a chance to proof the results."

Prices range from $600 (£389) for the smaller cremation urn to $2,600 (£679) for a larger one. Bizarrely, the company illustrates the service with an urn made in the shape of President Barack Obama's head, explaining that you can also have the urn designed in the image of your hero. _Wired

Barack Obama as hero? There's a thought.

Imagine an animatronic talking head urn, programmed with the personality of a person, available for either a quick consultation, or a long heart to heart purging? With the coming wonders of artificial intelligence, computer vision, robotic emotions etc., the possibilities are virtually endless -- if not particularly comforting.

Science fiction is divided on the topic of severed head immortality -- on the one hand we have stories of disembodied heads and brains which live on in a jar, artificially perfused in perpetutity. On the other hand, we have the natural immortals of Highlander fame, who stay alive only as long as their heads are not severed. And of course there are the cinematic undead of many varieties, who can only be killed by decapitation or obliteration of the head.

Either attached or detached, the head occupies a place of singular importance.

So what should you do with your head? No one else can tell you that. Not Hollywood, not science, not government, not the media, not the academy. You must make that determination yourself.

The League of Immortal Billionaires

PopSci

Earlier this year, a Russian media mogul named Dmitry Itskov formally announced his intention to disembody our conscious minds and upload them to a hologram--an avatar--by 2045. In other words he outlined a plan to achieve immortality, removing the human mind from the physical constraints presented by the biological human body. He was serious. And now, in a letter to the members of the Forbes World’s Billionaire’s List, he’s offering up that immortality to the world’s 1,266 richest people.

“Many of you who have accumulated great wealth by making success of your businesses are supporting science, the arts and charities. I urge you to take note of the vital importance of funding scientific development in the field of cybernetic immortality and the artificial body,” Itskov wrote in the letter. “Such research has the potential to free you, as well as the majority of all people on our planet, from disease, old age and even death.” _PopSci

If this idea pans out, it will provide the Earth's billionaires with more time to accumulate wealth and influence than they could have previously dreamed. Such billionaire avatars would have the time to play high stakes games of poker stretching over centuries, rather than mere hours or days.

Over such time periods, the Earth's economies are likely to experience any number of boom and bust cycles -- each cycle presenting huge opportunities for capital acquisition. The power to manipulate markets, economies, and governments would grow accordingly.

We are learning that China's economy is not up to the task of saving the world from another recession.

Peter Misek: We came back from China really depressed, I have to say. It appears that mainland China is correcting significantly. The statistics the government publishes, frankly we think are largely fabricated. So you have to rely on other statistics such as retail sales, electricity usage, mall traffic, etc. And what we saw, and what we heard was pretty grim. We think consumer electronic sales could be falling double-digits year-over-year in June and thus far in July. And we think the catalyst frankly is job losses. The premier of China was on this morning basically saying the labor situation is severe, meaning job losses are accelerating and unemployment is skyrocketing. _Mish

Europe is experiencing rapid capital displacement:

Source
You can see capital moving rapidly away from the marginal European economies toward those which are considered to have a sounder financial basis. What you cannot see in this chart is the capital which is moving out of the EU entirely, to Switzerland and elsewhere.

An immortal billionaire avatar could easily pull the strings to move large blocks of capital from one arena to another, as the situation warrants. Just as long as financial institutions could be sure that the avatar was sending the orders, and not some hacker who had tapped into the avatar's communications network or data base.

Personally, I do not see a great deal of capital flight going into Russia. Likewise, it isn't very probable that many billionaires will be eager to move their "souls" into a Russian controlled data bank complex, if they are not eager to move their capital there.

Russia's core population is slowly collapsing. Will this Russian media tycoon open his data banks to receive the souls of ordinary Russians, to keep the country's "population" from dwindling to virtually nothing? That might be one way to save the country, and would certainly be a nobler gesture than the attempt to trap and control the wispy remnants of Earth's billionaires, inside an electronic purgatory.

Who Wants to Live Forever?

This video is an entertaining look at Aubrey de Grey and his modern immortalist movement that is pushing the scientific envelope.

With loads of interview footage with de Grey, and quotes from both friend and foe, this irreverent look at de Grey is worth a look.

Hat tip Our Technological Future

Accelerating Future--Top Ten Cybernetic Enhancements

Cybernetic enhancements are a necessary phase in the move to next level humans. Michael Anissimov posted this fascinating post about likely cybernetic/cyborg enhancements last week, but I was too busy to post at that time. Looking at it with a bit more time, I see that I was negligent in not pointing it out to readers.

Who can argue with this list of enhancements?

1. Immortality
2. Superintelligence
3. Ability to Fly
4. Autopoiesis
5. Psychokinesis
6. Easy Appearance Upgrades
7. Super Strength
8. Brain-Computer Interface
9. Telephoto-Microscopic-Full Spectrum Vision
10. Immunity to Disease

If I were making my wishlist, I would probably add "rapid healing from injury", and portable inertial dampers and matter/energy shields. If you have superintelligence, superstrength, and immortality, you can probably work out ways to get most of the things you want.

To be a next-level human, you also must have wisdom and character. Without wisdom and character, a superintelligent immortal would be a curse to humanity.

Kurzweil Predicts Human Immortality

At the recent SCO6 supercomputing conference, Ray Kurzweil predicted human immortality by way of nanomedicine, and more. "Nanobots" in our bloodstreams will repair cellular and tissue damage as fast as it occurs. Affordable computers will be a thousand times more powerful than a human brain . . . Kurzweil clearly believes in "singularity now!"

According to Kurzweil, here's what we can expect in the not-so-distant future:

—Doctors will be doing a backup of our memories by the late 2030s;

—By the late 2020s, doctors will be sending intelligent bots, or nanobots, into our bloodstreams to keep us healthy, and into our brains to keep us young;

—In 15 years, human longevity will be greatly extended. By the 2020s, we'll be adding a year of longevity or more for every year that passes;

—In the same timeframe, we'll routinely be in virtual reality environments. Instead of making a cell call, we could "meet" someone in a virtual world and take a walk on a virtual beach and chat. Business meetings and conference calls will be held in calming or inspiring virtual locations;

—When you're walking down the street and see someone you've met before, background information about that person will pop up on your glasses or in the periphery of your vision;

—Instead of spending hours in front of a desktop machine, computers will be more ingrained in our environment. For instance, computer monitors could be replaced by projections onto our retinas or on a virtual screen hovering in the air;

—Scientists will be able to rejuvenate all of someone's body tissues and organs by transforming their skin cells into youthful versions of other cell types;

—Need a little boost? Kurzweil says scientists will be able to regrow our own cells, tissues, and even whole organs, and then introduce them into our bodies, all without surgery. As part of what he calls the "emerging field of rejuvenation medicine," new tissue and organs will be built out of cells that have been made younger;

—Got heart trouble? No problem, says Kurzweil. "We'll be able to create new heart cells from your skin cells and introduce them into your system through the bloodstream. Over time, your heart cells get replaced with these new cells, and the result is a rejuvenated, young heart with your own DNA";

Source.

Kurzweil as author, is an example of an uber-synthesist. He sifts through mountains of information to find technology trends. He predicts the future, without bothering to have tongue in cheek.

His biological predictions may even be timid, but Kurzweil's predictions of nanotech healers and machine super-cognition may be more than a little optimistic--from his point of view.

Humans are certainly not ready for super-intelligence, and computers have no point of reference. Human intelligence is based on emotions, which are based on biological survival drives. Computers have nothing similar to build on, other than (anthropomorphizing alert!) an unconscious "need" for electricity, more memory, and faster processors. As soon as computers begin to understand the need for speed and power, we may all be in trouble. Computers are not bound by billions of years of kludgy evolution--they can evolve exponentially.

So it comes down to: how soon can engineers/scientists build emotions and drives into computers--computers with actuators and power to act in the physical world? Because that is when Kurzweilian things start happening. Only computers can program massively parallel computers. They simply need a good reason to do so.

Kurzweil uncharacteristically provides a caveat: terrorists may learn to use this advanced technology. But more realistically, modern terrorists would like nothing more than to take human societies back to the stone age, where merely talking about Kurzweil's predictions would get your head chopped off.

Cross-posted at Al Fin Longevity.

SENS: Strategies for Longevity or Immortality?

Who wants to live forever?

We learn from Anti-ageing blog that controversial gerontologist Aubrey de Grey appeared on BBC Radio4 Start the Week yesterday. Anti-ageing blog provides this link for a Real Media format download of the show.

This past December, Acceleratingfuture blog presented a fine expose on SENS and de Grey. From that article:

The SENS website lists the seven causes of pathogenic damage underlying aging:

1) cell depletion
2) chromosomal mutations (cancer)
3) mitochrondrial mutations
4) unwanted cells that won’t die
5) extracellular crosslinks
6) extracellular junk
7) intracellular junk

These seven sources of damage are treated as comprehensive because they were all discovered over 20 years ago, and our tools for detecting sources of pathology has improved so greatly over this time, that if there were others to be found, they would be obvious by now. De Grey proposes the following solutions which respectively correspond to the seven causes of aging:

1) Stem cells, growth factors, exercise
2) WILT (Whole-body Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres)
3) Allotopic expression of 13 proteins
4) Cell ablation, reprogramming
5) AGE-breaking molecules/enzymes
6) Phagocytosis; beta-breakers
7) Transgenic microbial hydrolases

De Grey proposes a 50/50 chance that within twenty to thirty years, our implementations of the above countermeasures will become sophisticated enough to lower the rate of aging to negligibility. After that point, the only threats to life which would remain are disease, war, accidents, and technological or natural disasters. Of course, success in this endeavor will require adequate funding. And the old guard biogerontologists and skeptics are coming around, bit by bit, as they realize the scientific feasibility of de Grey’s proposals.

It is worthwhile to read the entire article. Then, armed with such excellent background information, go straight to the SENS website. At the SENS site, you can look over a wide array of information about SENS and de Grey, from de Grey's biography, to an overview of the science, basic questions and objections, and scheduled meetings.

SENS has an official publication, called Rejuvenation Research. Here is a link to a complementary issue of Rejuvenation Research. According to the website:
This fully indexed MEDLINE journal covers:

* Cardiovascular Aging
* Cell Immortalization and Senescence
* Cloning/ESCs
* DNA Damage/Repair
* Gene Targeting, Gene Therapy, and Genomics
* Growth Factors
* Immunology
* Invertebrate Lifespan
* Neurodegeneration
* Tissue Engineering
* Public Policy, Social Context
* ...and much more

According to Frank at anti-ageing blog, de Grey was not received well by others appearing on the BBC Radio4 show, including Clare Short, prominent British politician.

It is not surprising that contemporary politicians in the developed world look suspiciously on the idea of extending human lifespan. After all, budgets are strained to the breaking point already, to provide for social security--and that is with people obligingly dying before the age of 100. What happens when they live to 200, 500, or 1000 years? What will that do to the structure of political and economic power in the world?